zimbida

Russell market is indeed a great place to browse around. I'm surpised no one has mentioned Mavalli Tiffin Room which is a bangalore insitution and whose packaged products now sustain many expat indians in the US

actually if you include the prep for tabak maaz, which usually involves simmering them in milk first, its down to two, and I've eaten seen traditional rista recipes with a little bit of yoghurt. Part of this may come from a cooking technique my (kashmiri) nani taught me, when adding ground dried kashmiri chili to the oil, you folow it quickly with a little beaten yoghurt, so as to avoid the mirchi burning. with regard to J&K versus Azad Kashmir, from what I understand from speaking to folks who have been in both places is that the muslim cooking of both regions is pretty similar, it is a little different from some of the other regions mentioned because the in both places the muslim community is predominant. Also from what I understand though that Azad kashmir, is becoming much less kashmiri and influenced by folks from other areas of Pakistan and even afghanistan so that may change somewhat.

And the traditional red color they have often comes from cockscomb, no? ← Speaking as a kashmiri (hindu) , I was a little surprised by that comment as well. Yeah we don't use cream to thicken sauces, mainly yoghurt (and a little bit of yoghurt in almost all sauces) as in yakhni, but really isn't yoghurt the main thickening agent throughout the north? Cream is eaten however, just as more of a luxury thing. I remember vividly as a child visiting skimming cream off our delivered milk in the morning to be applied to katlam for breakfast. as to curry, I'm not really sure what that means, as we do use all the component spices of curry powder, even haldi - specifically in the group of "curries" called kaliya, and with paneer (or chaman in kashmiri) the traditional red color in dishes does come from cockscomb (which is much more common among muslim), though in certain dishes in hindu cooking it of course comes from kashmiri chilies (as in rogan josh or marzwangaan korma) As someone mentioned Hindus don't use onions and garlic, well to be specific they don't use the shalloty praan that muslims add to their dishes, they tend to use a lot more hing than you will find in use by Muslim cooks, especially with greens and kohlrabi (munje haak), which i remember eating almost every day I have visted kashmir or visited a kashmiri home in other areas of India it seems odd that these are the two distinctive elements he chose to single out, rather than propensity to deep fry almost all vegetables before use, the heavy use of fennel&ginger as a main spice base, the heavy use of black cardamom(badi elaichi) with meats, or really a number of other more distinctive elements to the cooking.

there's also a category of kashmiri dishes that are sweet and sour. Probably the most common is 'Choek Vangan' or sour eggplant. However, the same basic sauce is used with radish, lotus root, and prehaps my favorite, trout. Here's a couple links to recipes of this type http://www.koshursaal.com/recipe/chuk_nadur.html http://www.koausa.org/Cookbook/100.html

in kashmir, scheer chai is usually served with the small round crisp flatbread known as katlam to dip into the chai. fwiw. the saffron is optional in kahva. I've been given kahva numerous times by kashmiris both in kashmir and elsewhere and the saffron is usually saved for very special occasions. btw, you leave the leaves in to chew with the almonds (which should be broken up but not powdered), cardamom, etc.

another good cookbook author to look up would be K. M. Matthew, though her stuff is only printed there, more easily available but not quite as traditional are the kaimal cookbooks. speaking of published in India cookbooks, has anyone checked out the new "cook and see"? are the measurements still in ollacks?, have they "modernized" the recipes? Vikram, if you'd care to share your recipe for erachi olathiyathu I would be immensely grateful.

You can find the dried powdered aamloki in aryuvedic stores for just that purpose - don't care for the stuff myself

you mean these right? Cape gooseberries? My dad alway loved and missed these, he remembered them being called incorrectly raspberries near his delhi home growing up. we were finally able to locate some for him from a nearby farmer's market and eventually plant some in his backyard My favorite juice drinks to get while I'm there are always mosambi and annardana

snake gourd or opo squashes are sometimes used in kashmir in place of meat in yakhni. the attached link is for lotus root (Nadur) yakhni, bit kadhu is often used instead. the big elaichi called for in the recipe are black cardomom Nadur (Lotus Root) Yakhni